For The Love Of A Child
by Kurissyma san Tybalt
Summary: Sequel to 'The Hawks Eyes'. ROYAI! Summary inside.
1. Summary

_**An//. Hi there! Just letting y'all know that after my exams are over with, you can expect a sequel to 'The Hawk's Eyes'. I put this summary up just in case you were interested. -Rissy**_

Title: For The Love Of A Child

Subject: Fullmetal Alchemist

Shipping: Royai

Summary: An anonymous caller to the Central City HQ claims that the Jaade drug Riza was forcibly administered with two years ago was given to her during a routine check up at the military infirmary. It claims that the thousands of soldiers who are expecting to be vaccinated against smallpox in the coming months will be forced through the same ordeal and that an elite terrorist group is making plans to steal the only available treatment from Lab 9. Out of a sense of justice, and not wanting anyone else to go through what she had to, Riza volunteers herself to spearhead the investigation into these claims. Little does anyone know that HQ isn't the only place the anonymous caller tagged. In actual fact, a second -much more personal- threat was made to Mustang and Hawkeye's home while the former was out- one concerning the safety of their beautiful one-year-old daughter, Niamh.


	2. Prologue

Prologue: Broken Routine 

Riza Hawkeye's External Mnemonic Log

October 13, 1928

I- This morning, which was rather cold and foggy, I forced myself to awaken at 0600 hours, as per usual. My awakening was reluctant. My husband woke up at 6:03, which is when he heard the shower running. He did try to join me but, as we were in something of a hurry, I thought it better to lock the door.

II- It took 5 full minutes of knocking for him to realise that my head was under the water and I couldn't even hear him. It usually takes ten- poor idiot.

III- We had breakfast at 6:13 and Roy showered at 6:24 yet by the time we left the house it was already 9:53. You know, I really hate it when Roy showers with the bathroom door open on work days…

IV- We dropped our little Niamh off at Gracia Hughes' at 10:15, and by 10:16 I was on my way home to collect some randomly misplaced document –apparently marked 'urgent'- that Roy had left on his desk last night, before we went to bed, while he himself was troubling Gracia for a ride to work **again**. She obliged, as she always did, this being a rather regular occurrence with us.

V- When I got back home it was 10:51 in the am, seeing as the traffic was getting pretty bad by this point and, well, yeah… (Stupid open bathroom door. Stupid open shower curtains. Stupid libido…) I found the documents easily and noted with a sigh that they were nowhere near completion.

VI- Just as I was about to leave, the phone started ringing. I picked it up on the third ring.

VII- The caller had a fairly normal sounding voice, though a little shaky. It was not even vaguely familiar to me. I did not know this person.

IX- He began our correspondence with the chilling phrase "Your daughter is in grave danger."

-

Riza Hawkeye didn't keep a diary, as such. She found that using such a term always seemed to evoke a much more subjective response from the writer and a far less accurate account. In the stead of a 'diary', Hawkeye kept a 'log' and wrote in note format. Looking back, it was always a lot easier to pick out the key points… though a lot harder to write objectively in the first place when it came to personal subjects such as her family and friends.

At the end of the day, reading through it for what had to be the billionth time, the log rather reminded Riza of a military report… the kind of report that perhaps she should have written on the threat to her daughter from the beginning... Instead, she had merely heard the guy out and hung up the phone without a word, then called in on Gracia for reassurance that Roy had gotten to work okay and that Niamh was fine right there with her.

Ever the perceptive once, Ms Hughes had immediately asked whether or not something was wrong, but Riza only replied, for whatever reason, that everything was fine. After that she just went to work and for the rest of the day everything was as it should be.

She was relieved beyond anything she could have believed possible.

When Riza was ready to leave for the night –quite late, seeing as she had only gotten into work a little before noon- she called Gracia again and was told that her little angel was napping, safe and sound, as per her regular schedule, and she was suddenly in a very good mood- sure that the call from that morning had been nothing more than a foolish and heartless prank on a first-time mother.

She went back into Roy's office to see if he needed any help with his paperwork before they left the office together, as they always did, and she found him poring over a sheet of paper- the contents of which, he seemed more than just a little reluctant to divulge to her.

"Sir?" asked Riza, coming to stand behind him and leaning over his shoulder, with a slight frown edging at the corners of her lips.

Roy turned the piece of paper over to hide it from her view and she frowned even deeper, eyebrows furrowing slightly at how obviously his intent to keep her away from it appeared to be.

"Sir, is anything wrong?" she tried again, leaning closer and prompting his reply with pleading amber eyes.

"Nothing at all, Lieutenant," Roy replied immediately, and though his tone was level and calm, she could tell that he was lying to her. For one, he only called her Lieutenant in public, or when he had some sort of ulterior motive… including, but not limited to, sexual favours…

Anyway, the point was that she knew that he was lying to her and she hated it- no matter what his intentions were.

"Roy…" she said again, much softer now... The room was empty, it was just the two of them. "Roy, please?"

"It's not paperwork," he sighed eventually, handing the sheets over with the utmost reluctance.

It turned out to be the record of a telephone conversation, that had taken place a little before noon that morning, and as soon as Riza read it, something clicked in her mind and she just knew… She asked Roy if he had the recording of the conversation (courtesy of the bugged military lines) at hand. He switched it on for her obligingly.

Riza felt her blood run cold.

Just as she had suspected, it was the same quivering voice from that morning…


End file.
